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Hi, thanks for listening, I really appreciate it! I’m a student, so I can’t afford to hire live musicians, that’s why I’ve performed this myself using digital instruments. You’re right that this is a technically demanding composition, in fact, almost all of my work requires skilled musicians (except for the educational pieces, which I also compose). Thank you once again for listening, and I wish you all the best!

I find the music very easy to listen to in this "Jazzy" work. It's quite charming and I do find quite lyrical too! The interplay among the instruments work quite well and tell a very interesting story. Have you had musicians play the work. It sounds (without a score) technically challenging. Mark

Hello my friends . Here my latest binary Sonata no 25 . I hope you like it

This is a scheme run by composer Colin Matthews and the London Symphony Orchestra, in memory of Polish composer Sir Andrzej Panufnik. It's designed to help composers early in their careers. They only accept 6 students per year, and after the workshop, 2 are selected to expand their works for a performance at London's Barbican Centre. I've never applied to the programme myself; I just attended this year's workshop as an observer (since they're open to the public).

I re-listened to the (entire) work. "A tone poem (also called a symphonic poem) is a single-movement piece of orchestral music that tells a story, depicts a landscape, or illustrates a non-musical idea. Pioneered in the 19th-century Romantic era, it freed composers from traditional symphonic structures, allowing them to follow a narrative's mood and flow. [1, 2, 3] Key Characteristics Programmatic Nature: Tone poems are a type of program music, meaning they are explicitly designed to evoke an extra-musical idea, such as a poem, short story, painting, or historical event. [1, 2] Single Movement: Unlike traditional symphonies, which are divided into distinct, shorter movements, tone poems are typically played in one continuous stretch where the music evolves with the story. [1, 2] Thematic Transformation: Composers often use a technique called thematic transformation or leitmotifs—where a specific, recurring musical theme morphs in tempo, key, or orchestration to reflect changes in a character's emotions or the progression of the plot. [1, 2]" I feel the material could be integrated more, as per the leitmotifs. Each story to me feel too distinct isolated. It reminds me of the music used in telling stories/scenes in a adventure type video game. Now having said this, the orchestration is interesting and creative. In one section you have the English Horn playing against the piano ... maybe the dynamic of the piano should be softer since it overpowers the English Horn which has a softer projection ... Ravel has a piano duet with The English Horn where the piano is ethereal and supports the lush English Horn melodic line. Take a listen below: Listen at the 6 minute interval. https://www.facebook.com/reel/2867905410232600

Alex, I greatly appreciate your pointing out the little notational errors. In regards to many of them: I'm just going to point out that I'm still using Finale! After correcting an error, a new one may potentially pop up later. My 2024 laptop continues to update, while the program doesn't anymore alongside it! Sooner or later, I'm going to switch to Dorico. But, I suppose for the time being my having been a decades-plus-long customer of Finale makes me stubbornly clinging to it! ha! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As far as Celest' versus Celesta is concerned: I suppose you raised a nice little question mark even for me. I'm actually not sure why I did this!! I suppose at some point, I learned of the conversational-shorthand "Celest'"; and thought it sounded pretty; and no one had so far objected to it. ***shrugs*** Of course, depending on how big of a distraction it is, I can simply revert to "Celesta" with no problems. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Notational issues aside, I've never heard of the LSO Panufnik Scheme. The festivals that I have participated in are typically (though not exclusively) Global Arts United LLC programs: Sophia Symphonic Summit, Brasilia Orchestral Summit, Venetian Art and Music Festival, Vienna Contemporary Composer's Festival, etc. They all have their little unique musical (and social/professional) vibes. What is your program like?

Hmmm. I am a bit curious about what was said before the edit; and what was rescinded. What was happening while I was away at my breakfast and rehearsals in Bulgaria? 😁 Can you elaborate on what you believe could have been less and still achieved the same affect/goal? What exactly about my orchestration was "overwhelming"? Specific measure numbers and/or sectional reference would be greatly helpful. Well, there you have it. Have you figured out the theme yet? 😊

A musical quote concerning Prokofiev's opera "The Fiery Angel" incoming (from Colin Wilson's book "The Occult"): And if you're gotten this far, thanks for reading!

Any suggestions of what I should add or if it sounds clunky at any particular measure or sequence! Thanks for any tips or comments or just giving it a listen. https://flat.io/score/6a4075493d5ae4e4fe3ce3ed-more-adventures?sharingKey=fa0e49d45dda22b4cd95f950c58eb11df73c8efba7dfa6c7035b041afc1aa06a0db822f86f4a489a67490e6effe3c608f200fce35725bec7097dac206d4b8e17

Hi @gmm ! Wonderful and ethereal piece you've presented! It has a sense of floating and the rhythms are very well chosen, never giving an impression of mechanicality but of an inspired flow. I do agree with Luis that the violins would sound better with harmonics or perhaps sul ponticello, sul tasto or muted. Thanks for sharing and glad to see that you're delving into writing smaller ensemble works!

A very successful orchestration 😊. I enjoyed listening to it. Great balance and color! Mark

Alex, I corrected the post ... you can delete yours .......... Mark

Not nitpicks at all. I did think about the notation(s). Thank you for comments ... they are most welcome! Mark

Hi Mark! Quite an interesting and chromatic solo oboe piece you've presented! I am wondering if you just arbitrarily decided to use only flats for this piece? It seems to me like, given it's highly chromatic nature, both flats and sharps would have been appropriate. Then there's also the Cb's you used in meas. 10 & 27 which to me should quite obviously be B naturals. In fact this whole phrase here: to me would have been better notated with a B natural, G#, F# and E since this would make the distances between all the tones more obvious (the distance between the Gb and E is a diminished 3rd which to me would just have been way nicer spelled as just a regular major 2nd). Likewise here: you could have spelled the E as well as an Fb perhaps? That would make the intervals between all the tones more obvious in this phrase. The Db in the 2nd measure could also have been a C# given the minor 3rd distance to E. Those are all just my personal enharmonic nitpicks for this piece. Overall, I enjoyed listening to this even though I usually don't enjoy solo instrument piece unless they're polyphonic. Thanks for sharing!

Rescinded.

Hi all, Here's short lament I composed for solo Oboe .... when some notes during my warm up tweaked my interest. As always comments always appreciated. Mark (Oboe is computer generated...although I have played it 😉) Oboe Lament6-30-26.mp3 Oboe Lament6-30-26.pdf

Lovely!

I'm sorry there hasn't been more comments on this very ambitious project. The orchestration is quite overwhelming. I wonder if more could have been accomplished with less. When I listened to the work mostly straight through .... I was looking/listening for a central prominent integrative theme(s) to guide me.... Did I miss something here? Mark

This is an ambitious and challenging work. It reminds me of two pieces I saw workshopped earlier this year, as part of the LSO's Panufnik Scheme (at least in terms of complexity of the scoring). Not sure I can offer anything useful, since your scoring is far more advanced than mine! I did spot one or two issues in the engraving that you're probably already aware of. These were: A misspelling on Page 2 ('deturned' instead of 'detuned' in the Viola instructions). Awkward beaming alignment in Bar 35 of the celesta part (one of the noteheads seems to be floating away from the beam, and is missing a stalk). Misaligned brackets in Bars 31 and 32 of the Doublebass part. Bar 74 and elsewhere: not sure why you write Celest' instead of Celesta? Looks a bit odd. Musically I really enjoyed it, and liked how you used the extended techniques. These were not there just for the sake of it; but to create a useful effect within the narrative of the music. I had to look up some of your directions (like gioiosamente), as I'd never seen them before! Sorry I can't be of more help, Alex

Hello everyone, Here is a little thing that I wanted simple, in the spirit of the beginning of the century, evoking a little a song, to stick with the bittersweet character of this poetry of Laforgue. Thank you for your opinions and comments, JC https://youtu.be/Ta7B6IZlmfo?si=xCh0K7gY20E74zYd

Hmmm. I'm trying to figure out why other people's showcased music posts have mostly received replies and feedback within 1-3 days, while my piece has not seen a single reply after an entire week. I'm just taking a shot at the dark: the majority of people who visited this thread have been subconsciously made resistant to finish the piece from start to end, after listening to the first few moments of it; noting my "flighty" music behavior: going from one idea to the next, without endowing and developing much of any of them. This makes them "not want to" discuss the music, because it would be "hard" to; when the "central themes are not there". Would this sound about correct? 😁 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ edit - I said a whole lot more at first; and realize that I should keep it concise. This Tone Poem is meant to follow a style akin to "stream of consciousness": it's supposed to sound like ideas just come and go. On the other hand, there are central themes, and they do develop. Like Stravinsky's "Rite", one simply can't readily note them on first, second or third listen. But, they are there!

I certainly appreciate you guys for taking the time to listen/read it over for a second / third time. I understand that gets a bit redundant, when it comes to reviewing others' works. So I wanted to make sure to express my gratitude :) -Unc

Here is another ear-transcribed score from Halo 5: Guardians. (I have a handful of ear transcriptions I did, specifically for the Halo series of games... simply because Kazuma Jinnouchi, Neil Davidge, Martin O'Donnell, and Michael Salvatori are all just simply wonderful composers who I admire and respect greatly...) Audio referenced for transcription, here. blueteam.pdfBlueteam.mp3

I am on the other side of the pond, in the backwater that is the Isle of Man. Nothing much happens here, besides seagulls shitting on us from above. But I realize that can be a breath of fresh air in today's world order!

Thanks for listening! Yeah, I appreciate the point about monotony. For such a short piece (really just four phrases, played very slowly), I thought I could get by with just the one motif in the upper strings. I did consider inverting it for the fourth phrase, but it didn't seem to work as well that way. Also, thanks for the note about the Gorecki symphony; I wasn't familiar with it. I did have some of Shostakovich's political works in mind. Another idea I had banging around in my head was a parodistic minor-key version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in the militaristic style of some of Shostakovich's symphonies, but that felt a little more blunt than what I wanted. Can't decide whether I like the rather sterile name "Semiquincentennial", though I can't really come up with anything better. I almost wanted to call it "America the Hideous and Beautiful", but that sounds kind of sophomorically pretentious.